


Unexpected Allies

by Megpie71



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Other, outsider pov
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-11
Updated: 2019-08-11
Packaged: 2020-08-19 01:07:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 918
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20201206
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Megpie71/pseuds/Megpie71
Summary: Not all your allies are confidants... some of them are in places you don't think to look.





	Unexpected Allies

Sadayo Kawakami never expected much help. So I wasn't surprised she looked as though I'd slapped her with a fish when I told her I wanted to assist her in making sure Kurusu-kun managed to complete his second year.

I spend a lot of time working very hard at being the unlikeable teacher. I'm cranky, bad tempered, and I've developed a good aim with a piece of chalk. I treat 'em mean, and keep 'em keen, and if I get kids studying hard to pass my classes in order to damn well prove me wrong about them, then I count it as a good deed for the day. It works well for me. If other staff members are fooled by the grumpy exterior, it means I don't get dragged into things like supervising clubs and societies or monitoring class trips, which suits me just fine.

It doesn't mean I don't care about the kids in this school, though. Akira Kurusu got a bad hand dealt to him all the way from the beginning of his time here. Suguru Kamoshida was an unprofessional menace to the school body, and we all knew it. Only lazy self-important fools like Kobayakawa and self-centred idiots like Yamauchi would ever have thought otherwise. You don't beat up kids under your care, you don't release private details about a student into the school gossip network, and you don't sexually assault your students. Kamoshida should have been sacked for his misdeeds long before the Phantom Thieves needed to intervene (and before you ask, no, I don't approve of a bunch of kids taking the law into their own hands. On the other hand, well, they succeeded in getting Suguru Kamoshida out of Shujin, didn't they? Succeeded where others, including myself, had failed). Kobayakawa didn't care, so long as the volleyball team kept winning and the school got a good reputation; we all learned to keep silent after three of the physical education staff and the English language teacher who held the role before Grace Chouno got it lost their jobs in quick succession when they complained about Kamoshida's methods. 

I was one of the ones who fought for Kurusu to get a chance at rehabilitation here; I figured it would be a way of giving the school a good reputation which could survive whatever Kamoshida got up to. Plus, of course, I had a couple of friends in the Department of Education who managed to get hold of a copy of the kid's record from his home town for me - an otherwise unspectacular record full of "Kurusu-kun has a lot of potential, but no application" and "Kurusu-kun could do much better if he just applied himself". No mention of the kid being violent, or making trouble at school - his rehabilitation should have gone smoothly and won the school easy kudos. Then his criminal record got leaked.

When Akira Kurusu started out here, he had every damn kid in the school except about three thinking he was a dangerous criminal who'd beat them up as soon as look at them (and of those three, two became Phantom Thieves along with him, and the third attempted to walk off the roof). Now, there were two ways Kurusu could have gone, and I'll be honest, I was sadly expecting him to follow Sakamoto's example, embrace the thug reputation and start bunking off school altogether. Certainly I suspect it's what Kamoshida was hoping. I was both surprised and pleased when he chose the other one, dug in, and started showing what he was capable of in classes for what was probably the first time in his life. 

Not that I showed it, of course. Give a teenager an inch, and they'll take a mile. So I was as mean toward Kurusu as I was to the rest of them; pulled him up to answer questions when he seemed to be dozing off in class; even beaned him a couple of times with a piece of chalk (kid learned to dodge quick-smart, which I respected). But it was clear he was paying attention, and studying in his spare time, and when he was top of his year for the first set of mid-terms, I won't deny I was pleased with his progress. He kept the top slot for the rest of the year, despite all the other distractions happening in his life. Which, given some of those distractions included getting himself a girlfriend (and I remember what a distraction such an event can be for a young man), dodging a murder plot, being "dead" for a month, and getting the Tokyo Conspiracy off his back, says a lot about Kurusu's ability to study and retain information. 

Why wouldn't I want to keep a scholar like him in my classes? It'd be a crying shame to let someone with Kurusu's potential slope back off to a backwater high school which wouldn't challenge him in the least. It would also be a crying shame to have Kurusu winding up repeating a year, or not graduating from high school at all, just because he was caught up in bigger events around him. So when it became clear Sadayo Kawakami was doing her level best to ensure Kurusu-kun would be able to complete his second year exams with the rest of his peer group, I asked to be dealt in. 

My only condition was she wasn't allowed to let Kurusu, or his pals, know about it. I have a reputation to uphold, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> I found the character of Mr Ushimaru to be interesting in the game - he's definitely the teacher who comes across as "I am deliberately being the most unfriendly teacher in the whole school" - and I decided it might be fun to find out what he thought. He does seem to be something of an ally for Ms Kawakami, at least - his classes are the ones which are most likely to be interrupted by "slack off" attempts; and he's the one who says in class (on 22 November) he's received "word from Kurusu's family" the protagonist will be absent for a bit. 
> 
> So given those sorts of clues, it seems likely he would be the sort of teacher who would be working behind the scenes to ensure the protagonist got through their second year of high school without problems, and could graduate successfully at the end of their high school tenure.


End file.
